Tony Did Love His Acronyms
by ObsidianBlackCat
Summary: Tony Stark was many things. Sometimes, he was bored. Peter finds out that, while Edith is equipped with access to deadly missiles, she's also there for fun and games. And Edith wasn't kidding when she said that Tony loved acronyms. A one-shot where Peter takes a few minutes to let some things sink in. There's mourning of course, but also a little bit of fluff.


Tony Did Love His Acronyms

**In memory of Tony Stark.**

**This is set at the end of Far From Home on Peter's first night back home, but before the post-credit scene that spun his life into chaos.**

**I spent a while writing the acrostics in Tony Stark style, but I feel like the ones I included could be better. If anyone has suggestions or more Marvel acrostics/acronyms, send them to me in a PM or review. I would love to make this longer. And of course I'll add a credits section with all contributors' names.**

* * *

The room was dim, only the desk lamp was on. The shadow of a pile of clothes could be seen on the floor. The boy sat slumped at his desk, a bit more physically drained than the rest of his classmates.

Only one thing in the room was tidy. The bed in the back was made, the sheets still neatly tucked in exactly the same way they had been left over a week ago. The boy made no move to get into bed. He had briefly toyed with the idea of dropping right onto the sheets and immediately falling asleep, but he knew better. As tired as he felt, his mind was very busy, and he knew that if he didn't let it finish thinking now he was going to have a rough night. So instead he sits at his desk.

Just because he made his bed doesn't mean he has to lie in it.

Peter took a deep breath that bordered on a yawn, then sat a little straighter. He hadn't exactly used the glasses well since he got them, but he still tried to treat them with respect. Slowly, he opened the case and put on Tony Stark's sunglasses.

"Hello Edith."

"_Hello Peter. How may I be of assistance?_"

Peter licked his lips. On the plane ride home he had decided he needed to figure out everything Edith was capable of before he accidentally targeted someone else or agreed to some other crazy command. At the same time . . . he was hesitant. He wasn't too sure why. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the glasses were linked to some of the most powerful tech in the world. Maybe it was the fact that the glasses were capable of hacking into anyone's phone in seconds and he had already used that feature for personal gain. Maybe it was the fact that having access to amazing tech and hacking into things were Tony Stark Things. Putting on the glasses was like being a toddler trying on their parent's shoes, shoes that were _really_ big and could make you trip or, _worse_, make other people fall . . .

"I-um-I-What sort of things can you do, Edith? I mean, what are your capabilities? What are some basic commands?"

"_I am able to complete many commands. It would take months to list every individual thing I am capable of. Some basic commands, however, can be sorted into categories such as Offense, Defense, Innocent Information Gathering, Business, Surfing, Communication, and Game Time."_

"Gosh, that's a lot. I guess we should go in order or-" Something clicked in Peter's brain. "Um, did you say Game Time?"

"_Yes, I have access to over a thousand games ranging from puzzles to basic video games. Some of the most used titles include Tetris, Scrabble, Super Mario, AR Clue, Acronym Archive, AR Zombies, and AR Battleship."_

Peter grinned widely. "Those sound awesome. The AR ones project the images onto people, don't they? I can just imagine he . . . He-he used that in meetings, huh?" The grin faded.

"_I am unable to answer that question."_

Peter snorted. Stark had most definitely known that a denial was pretty much a confession. He had probably programmed the response to annoy Pepper.

Taking a deep breath, Peter turned away from those thoughts, those past tense thoughts, and cast around for something else to focus on. Super Mario, did Stark even have the rights to-? Tetris, had Stark really played that retro-? Acronym Archive, what was that? Peter had never heard of that game befo-

Oh.

Could it possibly be . . .?

"Um, Edith, what's Acronym Archive?"

"_I'll give you a tutorial."_

White words appeared on the desk. Peter turned his head, and the words remained stationary. He lifted the glasses from his eyes and the words disappeared. It was a bit unnerving given how he had spent his vacation, but Peter was impressed nonetheless.

"_Hold your hand out and curl your fingers as if you were holding a pen."_

Peter did as he was told. A neon yellow pen appeared in his hand. It hardly looked like it was just projected onto his hand. It really looked like he was holding it, except for the fact that he couldn't feel it between his fingers. He squeezed his fingers and the pen broke. When he opened his hand, the pieces faded and a new pen appeared in his grip.

"_You can use the virtual stylus to scroll through the files, or you can open a new file on the left. It works something like a tablet, so simply tap on your choice."_

It finally occurred to Peter to read the words displayed in front of him.

He let out a quiet gasp.

The list consisted of:

**JARVIS**

**PEPPER**

**HAPPY**

**CAP**

**BLACK WIDOW**

**ROSS**

**CLINT**

**RHODEY**

**MORGAN**

The list went on, but the image blurred. Peter lifted the lenses to wipe his eyes. He had expected to see a list of all the acronyms Stark used to name his machines and programs. He hadn't expected . . . this. Hesitating, he clicked on JARVIS.

**J ust  
****A nother  
****R ather  
****V ery  
****I ntelligent  
****S ystem**

That wasn't really anything new. What caught his eye was the mess of scribbles around the acronym. There was a big J and dozens of words written underneath. The other letters had even longer lists. Some words were circled, others were crossed out. Sentences wove in between everything.

**Is that how that's spelled? I'll ask Edith to look it up when this meeting is over. Hm, I should really expand her nonverbal commands.**

**Huh, now I forgot which word **_**that**_ **refers to. The arrow points to a whole group of words.**

**There's a lot of misspelled words here. No wonder I didn't become a genius, billionaire, philanthropist, playboy author.**

**Ha! Specular isn't spelled wrong! It's also not a word. How much does it cost to make a new word?**

Peter wasn't crying now, but it hurt. His heart clenched, and it was kind of difficult to breath.

He could practically hear Tony saying all of this, as if that moment that had lasted five years had never happened, as if it had never changed everything.

But somehow, it made him feel a little bit better.

Peter found the neon blue back button and looked at the list again. Should he?

He clicked on Ross.

The entire desk filled with words. Very vulgar words. Even being a teenager, Peter only recognized less than half. There were really obscure words like rakefire and zounderkite. Then there were words that were probably in different languages. Peter had never heard of meinfreitr or malaka before. He hastily returned to the list-view and glanced at the door as if his aunt would have been able to see the words even if she had walked in at this ungodly hour.

One could never be too careful around May Parker.

The list seemed to go on forever. Peter had known Stark knew a lot of people, but he would never have guessed that Tony would bother to write acronyms for everyone. He clicked on Hulk next.

**H uge  
****U gly  
****L uridly green  
****K ing Kong? Has he ever climbed the Empire State Building? If I can't get him there as Hulk, I'm forcing him to the top as Bruce. I've really got to get a picture of that now.**

Peter couldn't help it, he laughed. He could see the headlines now: Jolly Green Giant Thinks He's King Kong. Peter still remembered Dr. Banner as the timid physicist, and the image of him clinging to the top of the Empire State Building as Banner was even more hilarious. Then he clamped his hand over his mouth. Listening closely, he heard his aunt shifting in her bed, then silence. He relaxed again.

This felt way more fun than it should.

But was that a bad thing?

He went back to the list. His confidence was way up and, though he tried and tried, his eyes kept straying back to one of the first names he had seen. Had this been . . . some time ago (the blip made time math so much more complicated), Peter would have clicked on it without a second thought. At that time period, it would have likely been filled with a whole lot of jokes and playful teasing. But that was a long time ago, blip or not. That had been before Peter had even met Stark. The page had probably been edited months before Thanos had come to Earth.

The question he wanted to know was _how_ edited?

It would be an invasion of privacy, though. Stark had never even spoken much about that to Peter.

But he had once said that he wanted to. Sure, he had sounded a bit drunk at the time and there had been several liquor bottles in the lab, but he had said it.

Closing his eyes, Peter clicked on Cap. Opening them slowly, he read on.

**C orny  
****A ncient  
****P oor guy, grew up almost like a caveman  
****T erribly old fashioned  
****A merican, really American. I mean, wow, I thought it was just a name  
****I ncredibly clueless about today's lingo  
****N ot good with tech at all** **(Well, okay, he's getting better)**

**A cts like a 30 yr old grandpa  
****M ?  
****E arly to bed, early to rise, makes Tony eat breakfast with half open eyes. Darn you, Steve  
****R ?  
****I nsensitive son of a . . . Augh! I can't even think of words bad enough! I'll need to cross reference with R.O.S.S.  
****C ?  
****A ?**

Peter stared at the half-finished acronym. Yes, there was also a mess of words around it, a very large portion of which was very cruel and nearly illegible. A lot of the more pleasant words that had been considered were crossed out. Aside from that, though, it was so . . . well, not exactly nice, but not scathing either. It seemed to still describe a time that Peter had never been able to witness.

Drat, tears were clouding his vision again.

He went back to the list without reading the page in its entirety. His mind kept thinking about it though. Peter hadn't been there to hear about the last five years where Tony and Steve existed together. Had they spoken much during that time? Had they forgiven each other to some extent? Had anything changed at all? So much else had changed. Could that one thing have changed for the better? Would anyone ever know if it did?

Peter had never realized how much could happen in five years. So many things had changed that he would have guessed ten or more years had passed, but it was only five.

He scrolled down the list, reading the names in a different light. How many of these people had been snapped too? How many had been missed? How many had lived through those five years, changing, even permanently dying?

His hand stopped. There was someone who only had about five years to their name. Someone who Peter hadn't even known in the first place. But he wanted to know them. They were probably the only person who might miss Tony more than he did.

Peter clicked on Morgan.

It was different than all the others. It had a set of scribbles in another, more childish hand.

**M y little Princess, Fairy, Animal Doctor, Dancer, Singer, Robot maker (As dictated by ** **_****Morgan). Wow, sweetie, you've already got more titles than I do.  
****O verpowering puppy dog eyes  
****R eally, really loud when she wants to be.  
****G reatest thing I ever helped to make.  
****A mazingly beautiful, but then she is my daughter  
****N ight owl. It's currently 1 a.m. and we're sharing ice cream (mommy is fast asleep)**

**ABBBBCCCCFFF**

**DADADADADADADA**

**OOOOOOOOOOOO**

**MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM**

**Morgan Stark**

**MORGAN OOOOOOO**

**Good job, honey. You'll be signing autographs in no time.**

**I LUV YOO**

**I love yoo too.**

Peter's throat constricted. He had met Morgan a few times. It had been one of the more awkward moments since he was back. It was a little bit hard to believe Tony had finally settled down (to some extent). It was a little hard to grasp exactly how far life had marched on while he wasn't there. But he had seen her father in her from the moment he laid eyes on her. She had his smirk.

Peter would have given anything to tell Tony how his daughter managed to make it look so much cuter.

It hurt. It hurt so much to think that Tony had probably promised her the world. And he came through by saving it, even at the cost of his life.

Lifting the glasses enough to wipe his eyes, Peter returned to the list. "Edith-," his voice cracked, so he took a breath. "Edith, um, I'm done looking through this. Can you close the application?"

"_Sure, Peter_."

The glowing words blinked out of existence, but not before something else caught his eye. "Wait! Pull it back up!" Peter didn't think before he said that. Then the words were back in front of him, and he didn't know what to think. It was there, right below Morgan. He didn't know if he wanted to see it.

His hand tapped the virtual stylus to it anyway.

**S kinny and light as Hell  
****P uns galore. But I guess that's the mark of a true hero.  
****I ntrepid  
****D aring for a guy in tights  
****E ndearing no matter how much he talks  
****R **

**M y first kid  
****A mazing  
****N erdy, not that I can really talk**

And right below that, in large, red, bold letters:

**I WILL** **SAVE YOU.**

Mingled with his heartbeat and deep breaths, Peter could nearly hear Tony saying those words, and the determination laced in his voice.

But his sobs soon drowned out coherent thought.

Carefully, he returned the glasses to their case before folding his arms on the desk, burying his head between them. His shoulders shook as he cried as silently as possible. He hadn't cried like this since Ben died. Peter had thought the next time he felt this way would be whenever May's time came. And he hadn't even known Stark for that long. He had only begun to really know him.

That was the hardest part of all.

It wasn't fair.

Ned had said it. Peter had hoped it was true. And now he knew Stark had noticed it too.

He had quickly been growing to be another father figure.

Why did Peter keep losing them?

Something wrapped around Peter's neck. He was up and out of the chair before he even blinked the tears out of his eyes.

"Sorry! Sorry, honey." May gave him a small smile, stepping back. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. S-Sorry if I woke you up."

"I was already awake. Do you want to tell me what's on your mind?"

"It's . . . I was just thinking . . ." Peter took a breath. His voice kept wavering. "I was thinking about Mr. Stark."

May looked over at the desk, nodding when she saw the glasses case. She wandered over and opened the case, looking at the contents. "These are the ones that Mysterio guy wanted to use for his evil plans?"

Peter nodded.

"Stark was wise to trust you with them," she said matter of factly.

He frowned. "But I gave them to Quentin! He almost killed a bunch of people because-"

"Because you thought Stark was out of his mind to give them to you," May finished for him, moving over to sit on the bed. "Peter, even if you ignore the obvious fact that you got them back and saved the day, do you know how many people would have been willing to sell these to Mysterio? Or use them for their own personal gain? You don't just give this sort of access to just anybody." Her smile turned a bit wry. "You know it's true. Can we please skip the part where you keep denying it just because you're humble?" Then she hummed thoughtfully. "I guess that's why Tony stopped being humble."

Peter snorted in spite of himself. "Everyone I've spoken to says he was never humble."

May shrugged, patting the spot next to her. "Well, in any case, you have less and less to be humble about, huh?" When he sat down, she pulled him close with a sigh. "I always had high hopes for your future. But what I used to imagine is downright dull next to what you've already managed to do."

Peter sniffed. "You couldn't imagine me in spandex?"

"Oh, well sure I could. I was thinking more along the lines of a dancer though."

"A dancer?"

"This was back when you were about seven. We showed you a video of one of Michael Jackson's concerts. You practiced his moves for a good month or two."

"Oh, yeah. I only figured out how to do the moonwalk though."

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then May squeezed him briefly. "Let's get you to bed. You've been awake for more than twenty-four hours now. My little hero needs his sleep."

"I'm not tired."

"He says five minutes before he's conked out on his desk." May stood, putting her hands to her hips. "Sometimes I know you better than you know yourself."

Peter stuck out his tongue, but slid under the covers. May began to tuck him in.

"Sorry I startled you when I came in," she apologized. "I'll knock next time. I thought your Peter Tingle was working better now."

"It is. I was just distracted." Peter frowned at her. "Um, would you please stop calling it that?"

"What else am I supposed to call it?"

"I call it spider sense."

"Well, sure, it's a sense. But you said it feels more like a tingle."

Peter pulled the covers over his head. "You better not call it that in front of MJ." He could only imagine how Stark would have teased him if he had heard the term. Peter sighed. He could only imagine. Never hear it.

The realization was sinking in now, and, somehow, it was a little less awful. It was as true as ever, as sad as ever, but a bit more bearable.

"I'll try to say spider sense, but she comes tomorrow. Old habits die hard." The sound of May's footsteps approached the door, then stopped. "You know, I'm glad Stark found you. He saw your potential from a mile away, and he went to the trouble of investigating your identity to ask for your help. I may not agree with everything he did with you, but I appreciate that he didn't just work with Spider-Man. He became friends with Peter Parker too. I had always heard Tony Stark was a great man, but I hadn't really believed it until I saw it."

Peter poked his heads back out of the covers. "Aren't you exaggerating a bit? He did a gazillion other great things before he even met me."

"True, but think of the gazillion great things you'll be able to do now that you've met Stark." She smiled, her eyes glistening. "Ben said something about that once. 'Everyone has to make sacrifices. It's the sacrifices you don't have to make that define you.' People have said what Tony did should have been impossible. A lot of people in his shoes would have taken the fifty percent of life left as a compromise. He didn't have to bend the very laws of nature to get another chance at a battle he had lost. But he did."

Peter wiped his eyes. "He just had to go in the most epic way possible, didn't he?"

"He wouldn't have had it any other way, I'm sure." May leaned against the doorway. "Goodnight, Peter."

"Goodnight, May."

Good life, Mr. Stark.


End file.
